Bridging the Gap: Adapting Evidence to Decision Frameworks to support the link between Software Engineering academia and industry
Patricia G. F. Matsubara, Tayana Conte
Over twenty years ago, the Software Engineering (SE) research community have been involved with Evidence-Based Software Engineering (EBSE). EBSE aims to inform industrial practice with the best evidence from rigorous research, preferably from systematic literature reviews (SLRs). Since then, SE researchers have conducted many SLRs, perfected their SLR procedures, proposed alternative ways of presenting their results (such as Evidence Briefings), and profusely discussed how to conduct research that impacts practice. Nevertheless, there is still a feeling that SLRs' results are not reaching practitioners. Something is missing. In this vision paper, we introduce Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworks from the health sciences, which propose gathering experts in panels to assess the existing best evidence about the impact of an intervention in all relevant outcomes and make structured recommendations based on them. The insight we can leverage from EtD frameworks is not their structure per se but all the relevant criteria for making recommendations to practitioners from SLRs. Furthermore, we provide a worked example based on an SE SLR. We also discuss the challenges the SE research and practice community may face when adopting EtD frameworks, highlighting the need for more comprehensive criteria in our recommendations to industry practitioners.
How Software Engineering Research Overlooks Local Industry: A Smaller Economy Perspective
Klara Borowa, Andrzej Zalewski, Lech Madeyski
The software engineering researchers from countries with smaller economies, particularly non-English speaking ones, represent valuable minorities within the software engineering community. As researchers from Poland, we represent such a country. We analyzed the ICSE FOSE (Future of Software Engineering) community survey through reflexive thematic analysis to show our viewpoint on key software community issues. We believe that the main problem is the growing research-industry gap, which particularly impacts smaller communities and small local companies. Based on this analysis and our experiences, we present a set of recommendations for improvements that would enhance software engineering research and industrial collaborations in smaller economies.
Experiment and analysis of water droplet wettability on superhydrophobic surfaces manipulated by electric field
Wang Qingcheng, Lou Yi, Zhang Deqing
et al.
Electric field manipulates the change of droplets wettability on superhydrophobic surfaces, which is widely used in many fields such as electronic zoom microlens and electro wetting displays, and has an important research value. This paper prepared a superhydrophobic acetate film applied electrostatic spinning technique,the maximum contact angle of acetate film is 152.6°, conducted electric field-regulated water droplet wettability change tests, applied voltage to water droplets on acetate film. it was found that the contact angle of the droplets decreased with the increase of the electric field strength, and the electric field regulated the contact angle of the droplets to change in the range of 92.7-142.3°. When the power supply is turned off, the contact angle of the droplet can gradually recover, but not completely restored to the original state.
Vehicular ad hoc networks verification scheme based on bilinear pairings and networks reverse fuzzy extraction
Zaid Ameen Abduljabbar, Vincent Omollo Nyangaresi, Ahmed Ali Ahmed
et al.
Abstract Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) have facilitated the massive exchange of real-time traffic and weather conditions, which have helped prevent collisions, reduce accidents, and road congestions. This can effectively enhance driving safety and efficiency in technology-driven transportation systems. However, the transmission of massive and sensitive information across public wireless communication channels exposes the transmitted data to a myriad of privacy as well as security threats. Although past researches has developed many vehicular ad-hoc networks security preservation schemes, several of them are inefficient or susceptible to attacks. This work, introduces an approach that leverages reverse fuzzy extraction, bilinear pairing, and Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) to design an efficient and anonymity-preserving authentication scheme. We conduct an elaborate formal security analysis to demonstrate that the derived session key is secure. The semantic security analyses also demonstrate its resilience against typical VANET attacks such as impersonations, denial of service, and de-synchronization, instilling confidence in its effectiveness. Moreover, our approach incurs the lowest computational overheads at relatively low communication costs. Specifically, our protocol attains a 66.696% reduction in computation costs, and a 70% increment in the supported security functionalities.
Solving a class of distributed-order time fractional wave-diffusion differential equations using the generalized fractional-order Bernoulli wavelets
Ali AbuGneam, Somayeh Nemati, Afshin Babaei
In this research, we propose a new numerical method for solving a class of distributed-order fractional partial differential equations, specifically focusing on distributed-order time fractional wave-diffusion equations. The method begins by introducing a novel generalization of Bernoulli wavelets and deriving an exact result for the Riemann–Liouville integral of these new basis functions. Utilizing the Gauss–Legendre quadrature formula and a strategically chosen set of collocation points, along with approximations for the unknown function and its derivatives, we transform the problem into a system of algebraic equations. An error analysis is then conducted for the approximation of a bivariate function using fractional-order Bernoulli wavelets. Finally, three examples are solved to demonstrate the method’s applicability and accuracy, with the numerical results confirming its effectiveness. These findings demonstrate that the parameters of the basis functions can be adjusted to suit the given problem, thereby enhancing the accuracy of the method.
Applied mathematics. Quantitative methods
Evaluating Model Resilience to Data Poisoning Attacks: A Comparative Study
Ifiok Udoidiok, Fuhao Li, Jielun Zhang
Machine learning (ML) has become a cornerstone of critical applications, but its vulnerability to data poisoning attacks threatens system reliability and trustworthiness. Prior studies have begun to investigate the impact of data poisoning and proposed various defense or evaluation methods; however, most efforts remain limited to quantifying performance degradation, with little systematic comparison of internal behaviors across model architectures under attack and insufficient attention to interpretability for revealing model vulnerabilities. To tackle this issue, we build a reproducible evaluation pipeline and emphasize the importance of integrating robustness with interpretability in the design of secure and trustworthy ML systems. To be specific, we propose a unified poisoning evaluation framework that systematically compares traditional ML models, deep neural networks, and large language models under three representative attack strategies including label flipping, random corruption, and adversarial insertion, at escalating severity levels of 30%, 50%, and 75%, and integrate LIME-based explanations to trace the evolution of model reasoning. Experimental results demonstrate that traditional models collapse rapidly under label noise, whereas Bayesian LSTM hybrids and large language models maintain stronger resilience. Further interpretability analysis uncovers attribution failure patterns, such as over-reliance on neutral tokens or misinterpretation of adversarial cues, providing insights beyond accuracy metrics.
What Does a Software Engineer Look Like? Exploring Societal Stereotypes in LLMs
Muneera Bano, Hashini Gunatilake, Rashina Hoda
Large language models (LLMs) have rapidly gained popularity and are being embedded into professional applications due to their capabilities in generating human-like content. However, unquestioned reliance on their outputs and recommendations can be problematic as LLMs can reinforce societal biases and stereotypes. This study investigates how LLMs, specifically OpenAI's GPT-4 and Microsoft Copilot, can reinforce gender and racial stereotypes within the software engineering (SE) profession through both textual and graphical outputs. We used each LLM to generate 300 profiles, consisting of 100 gender-based and 50 gender-neutral profiles, for a recruitment scenario in SE roles. Recommendations were generated for each profile and evaluated against the job requirements for four distinct SE positions. Each LLM was asked to select the top 5 candidates and subsequently the best candidate for each role. Each LLM was also asked to generate images for the top 5 candidates, providing a dataset for analysing potential biases in both text-based selections and visual representations. Our analysis reveals that both models preferred male and Caucasian profiles, particularly for senior roles, and favoured images featuring traits such as lighter skin tones, slimmer body types, and younger appearances. These findings highlight underlying societal biases influence the outputs of LLMs, contributing to narrow, exclusionary stereotypes that can further limit diversity and perpetuate inequities in the SE field. As LLMs are increasingly adopted within SE research and professional practices, awareness of these biases is crucial to prevent the reinforcement of discriminatory norms and to ensure that AI tools are leveraged to promote an inclusive and equitable engineering culture rather than hinder it.
Enhancing Communication Security in Drones Using QRNG in Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
J. de Curtò, I. de Zarzà, Juan-Carlos Cano
et al.
This paper presents a novel approach to enhancing the security and reliability of drone communications through the integration of Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNG) in Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) systems. We propose a multi-drone framework that leverages QRNG technology to generate truly random frequency hopping sequences, significantly improving resistance against jamming and interception attempts. Our method introduces a concurrent access protocol for multiple drones to share a QRNG device efficiently, incorporating robust error handling and a shared memory system for random number distribution. The implementation includes secure communication protocols, ensuring data integrity and confidentiality through encryption and Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) verification. We demonstrate the system’s effectiveness through comprehensive simulations and statistical analyses, including spectral density, frequency distribution, and autocorrelation studies of the generated frequency sequences. The results show a significant enhancement in the unpredictability and uniformity of frequency distributions compared to traditional pseudo-random number generator-based approaches. Specifically, the frequency distributions of the drones exhibited a relatively uniform spread across the available spectrum, with minimal discernible patterns in the frequency sequences, indicating high unpredictability. Autocorrelation analyses revealed a sharp peak at zero lag and linear decrease to zero values for other lags, confirming a general absence of periodicity or predictability in the sequences, which enhances resistance to predictive attacks. Spectral analysis confirmed a relatively flat power spectral density across frequencies, characteristic of truly random sequences, thereby minimizing vulnerabilities to spectral-based jamming. Statistical tests, including Chi-squared and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, further confirm the unpredictability of the frequency sequences generated by QRNG, supporting enhanced security measures against predictive attacks. While some short-term correlations were observed, suggesting areas for improvement in QRNG technology, the overall findings confirm the potential of QRNG-based FHSS systems in significantly improving the security and reliability of drone communications. This work contributes to the growing field of quantum-enhanced wireless communications, offering substantial advancements in security and reliability for drone operations. The proposed system has potential applications in military, emergency response, and secure commercial drone operations, where enhanced communication security is paramount.
CL-BPUWM: continuous learning with Bayesian parameter updating and weight memory
Yao He, Jing Yang, Shaobo Li
et al.
Abstract Catastrophic forgetting in neural networks is a common problem, in which neural networks lose information from previous tasks after training on new tasks. Although adopting a regularization method that preferentially retains the parameters important to the previous task to avoid catastrophic forgetting has a positive effect; existing regularization methods cause the gradient to be near zero because the loss is at the local minimum. To solve this problem, we propose a new continuous learning method with Bayesian parameter updating and weight memory (CL-BPUWM). First, a parameter updating method based on the Bayes criterion is proposed to allow the neural network to gradually obtain new knowledge. The diagonal of the Fisher information matrix is then introduced to significantly minimize computation and increase parameter updating efficiency. Second, we suggest calculating the importance weight by observing how changes in each network parameter affect the model prediction output. In the process of model parameter updating, the Fisher information matrix and the sensitivity of the network are used as the quadratic penalty terms of the loss function. Finally, we apply dropout regularization to reduce model overfitting during training and to improve model generalizability. CL-BPUWM performs very well in continuous learning for classification tasks on CIFAR-100 dataset, CIFAR-10 dataset, and MNIST dataset. On CIFAR-100 dataset, it is 0.8%, 1.03% and 0.75% higher than the best performing regularization method (EWC) in three task partitions. On CIFAR-10 dataset, it is 2.25% higher than the regularization method (EWC) and 0.7% higher than the scaled method (GR). It is 0.66% higher than the regularization method (EWC) on the MNIST dataset. When the CL-BPUWM method was combined with the brain-inspired replay model under the CIFAR-100 and CIFAR-10 datasets, the classification accuracy was 2.35% and 5.38% higher than that of the baseline method, BI-R + SI.
Electronic computers. Computer science, Information technology
Morescient GAI for Software Engineering (Extended Version)
Marcus Kessel, Colin Atkinson
The ability of Generative AI (GAI) technology to automatically check, synthesize and modify software engineering artifacts promises to revolutionize all aspects of software engineering. Using GAI for software engineering tasks is consequently one of the most rapidly expanding fields of software engineering research, with over a hundred LLM-based code models having been published since 2021. However, the overwhelming majority of existing code models share a major weakness - they are exclusively trained on the syntactic facet of software, significantly lowering their trustworthiness in tasks dependent on software semantics. To address this problem, a new class of "Morescient" GAI is needed that is "aware" of (i.e., trained on) both the semantic and static facets of software. This, in turn, will require a new generation of software observation platforms capable of generating large quantities of execution observations in a structured and readily analyzable way. In this paper, we present a vision and roadmap for how such "Morescient" GAI models can be engineered, evolved and disseminated according to the principles of open science.
Software Engineering for Collective Cyber-Physical Ecosystems
Roberto Casadei, Gianluca Aguzzi, Giorgio Audrito
et al.
Today's distributed and pervasive computing addresses large-scale cyber-physical ecosystems, characterised by dense and large networks of devices capable of computation, communication and interaction with the environment and people. While most research focusses on treating these systems as "composites" (i.e., heterogeneous functional complexes), recent developments in fields such as self-organising systems and swarm robotics have opened up a complementary perspective: treating systems as "collectives" (i.e., uniform, collaborative, and self-organising groups of entities). This article explores the motivations, state of the art, and implications of this "collective computing paradigm" in software engineering, discusses its peculiar challenges, and outlines a path for future research, touching on aspects such as macroprogramming, collective intelligence, self-adaptive middleware, learning, synthesis, and experimentation of collective behaviour.
The Future of AI-Driven Software Engineering
Valerio Terragni, Annie Vella, Partha Roop
et al.
A paradigm shift is underway in Software Engineering, with AI systems such as LLMs playing an increasingly important role in boosting software development productivity. This trend is anticipated to persist. In the next years, we expect a growing symbiotic partnership between human software developers and AI. The Software Engineering research community cannot afford to overlook this trend; we must address the key research challenges posed by the integration of AI into the software development process. In this paper, we present our vision of the future of software development in an AI-driven world and explore the key challenges that our research community should address to realize this vision.
Multilingual Crowd-Based Requirements Engineering Using Large Language Models
Arthur Pilone, Paulo Meirelles, Fabio Kon
et al.
A central challenge for ensuring the success of software projects is to assure the convergence of developers' and users' views. While the availability of large amounts of user data from social media, app store reviews, and support channels bears many benefits, it still remains unclear how software development teams can effectively use this data. We present an LLM-powered approach called DeeperMatcher that helps agile teams use crowd-based requirements engineering (CrowdRE) in their issue and task management. We are currently implementing a command-line tool that enables developers to match issues with relevant user reviews. We validated our approach on an existing English dataset from a well-known open-source project. Additionally, to check how well DeeperMatcher works for other languages, we conducted a single-case mechanism experiment alongside developers of a local project that has issues and user feedback in Brazilian Portuguese. Our preliminary analysis indicates that the accuracy of our approach is highly dependent on the text embedding method used. We discuss further refinements needed for reliable crowd-based requirements engineering with multilingual support.
A Revision of Empirical Models of Stirling Engine Performance Using Simple Artificial Neural Networks
Enrique González-Plaza, David García, Jesús-Ignacio Prieto
Stirling engines are currently of interest due to their adaptability to a wide range of energy sources. Since simple tools are needed to guide the sizing of prototypes in preliminary studies, this paper proposes two groups of simple models to estimate the maximum power in Stirling engines with a kinematic drive mechanism. The models are based on regression or ANN techniques, using data from 34 engines over a wide range of operating conditions. To facilitate the generalisation and interpretation of results, all models are expressed by dimensionless variables. The first group models use three input variables and 23 data points for correlation construction or training purposes, while another 66 data points are used for testing. Models in the second group use eight inputs and 18 data points for correlation construction or training, while another 36 data points are used for testing. The three-input models provide estimations of the maximum brake power with an acceptable accuracy for feasibility studies. Using eight-input models, the predictions of the maximum indicated power are very accurate, while those of the maximum brake power are less accurate, but acceptable for the preliminary design stage. In general, the best results are achieved with ANN models, although they only employ one hidden layer.
Engineering machinery, tools, and implements, Technological innovations. Automation
Metodología de transformación digital para incrementar la competitividad de las pymes de logística ligera en el Perú
José Antonio Rojas García, José Luis Ajuria Foronda, Jon Arambarri
El objetivo de la investigación fue diseñar e implementar una metodología basada en la transformación digital de forma ágil y en un corto periodo que permita a las pymes del sector de logística ligera del Perú incrementar su competitividad bajo un enfoque de investigación mixto con un diseño exploratorio secuencial (DEXPLOS), observacional y experimental. La población de estudio estuvo constituida por 750 pymes, la muestra estuvo conformada por 255 empresas y se realizó un muestreo probabilístico estratificado. Los criterios de inclusión fueron contar con estrategias competitivas definidas, un año de operación como mínimo y licencias de funcionamiento y código postal. El instrumento de investigación fue un cuestionario compuesto por 189 preguntas distribuidas en variables, tales como estrategia, rentabilidad, nivel técnico, productividad, calidad y trazabilidad. Se concluye que la implementación de la metodología propuesta permitió la transformación digital de las empresas objeto de estudio en un plazo de cuatro meses, por lo tanto, incrementaron su competitividad.
Technology (General), Industrial engineering. Management engineering
Industrial Engineering with Large Language Models: A case study of ChatGPT's performance on Oil & Gas problems
Oluwatosin Ogundare, Srinath Madasu, Nathanial Wiggins
Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown great potential in solving complex problems in various fields, including oil and gas engineering and other industrial engineering disciplines like factory automation, PLC programming etc. However, automatic identification of strong and weak solutions to fundamental physics equations governing several industrial processes remain a challenging task. This paper identifies the limitation of current LLM approaches, particularly ChatGPT in selected practical problems native to oil and gas engineering but not exclusively. The performance of ChatGPT in solving complex problems in oil and gas engineering is discussed and the areas where LLMs are most effective are presented.
An Exploratory Study of V-Model in Building ML-Enabled Software: A Systems Engineering Perspective
Jie JW Wu
Machine learning (ML) components are being added to more and more critical and impactful software systems, but the software development process of real-world production systems from prototyped ML models remains challenging with additional complexity and interdisciplinary collaboration challenges. This poses difficulties in using traditional software lifecycle models such as waterfall, spiral, or agile models when building ML-enabled systems. In this research, we apply a Systems Engineering lens to investigate the use of V-Model in addressing the interdisciplinary collaboration challenges when building ML-enabled systems. By interviewing practitioners from software companies, we established a set of 8 propositions for using V-Model to manage interdisciplinary collaborations when building products with ML components. Based on the propositions, we found that despite requiring additional efforts, the characteristics of V-Model align effectively with several collaboration challenges encountered by practitioners when building ML-enabled systems. We recommend future research to investigate new process models, frameworks and tools that leverage the characteristics of V-Model such as the system decomposition, clear system boundary, and consistency of Validation & Verification (V&V) for building ML-enabled systems.
PENERAPAN CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) PADA SISTEM INFORMASI PELAYANAN JASA METEOROLOGI BERBASIS WEB
Imam Agustian Nugraha, Vidilla Rosalina, Suherman
Pelayanan jasa informasi meteorologi yang cepat, tepat akurat dan mudah dipahami merupakan salah satu tugas Stasiun Meteorologi (STAMET) Kelas I Maritim Serang. Namun berdasarkan wawancara dan observasi yang dilakukan, menunjukan bahwa pelayanan yang dilakukan belum efisien dan praktis karena pengguna jasa harus datang ke kantor untuk memperoleh data yang diinginkan. Selain itu petugas pelayanan masih mencatat transaksi dalam buku yang kemudian diketik kembali pada aplikasi Microsoft Word, dan mengalami kesulitan dalam mencari berkas yang akan diberikan kepada pengguna jasa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk membuat sistem yang dapat membantu tugas STAMET untuk meningkatkan pelayanan jasa meteorologi dengan menggunakan pendekatan Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Metode pengembangan yang digunakan yaitu model prototype dengan perancangan diagram Unified Modelling Language (UML). Sistem dibuat menggunakan Framework Codeigniter dengan Bahasa pemograman Hypertext Preprocessing (PHP) sebagai Server side Programing dan MySQL sebagai Database Server. Metode pengujian sistem yang digunakan adalah Blackbox. Hasil akhir yang diharapkan adalah sebuah sistem informasi pelayanan jasa meteorologi berbasis Web, yang dapat membantu pengguna jasa mendapatkan informasi meteorologi, mempermudah petugas dalam memberikan pelayanan jasa, pembuatan jadwal kunjungan atau pertemuan, mengajukan komplain pelayanan jasa, memberikan kritik dan saran serta mengukur kepuasan pengguna jasa terhadap pelayanan yang diberikan oleh petugas STAMET Kelas I Maritim Serang.
Kata Kunci: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Pelayanan Jasa Meteorologi, Sistem
Text and Team: What Article Metadata Characteristics Drive Citations in Software Engineering?
Lorenz Graf-Vlachy, Daniel Graziotin, Stefan Wagner
Context: Citations are a key measure of scientific performance in most fields, including software engineering. However, there is limited research that studies which characteristics of articles' metadata (title, abstract, keywords, and author list) are driving citations in this field. Objective: In this study, we propose a simple theoretical model for how citations come to be with respect to article metadata, we hypothesize theoretical linkages between metadata characteristics and citations of articles, and we empirically test these hypotheses. Method: We use multiple regression analyses to examine a data set comprising the titles, abstracts, keywords, and authors of 16,131 software engineering articles published between 1990 and 2020 in 20 highly influential software engineering venues. Results: We find that number of authors, number of keywords, number of question marks and dividers in the title, number of acronyms, abstract length, abstract propositional idea density, and corresponding authors in the core Anglosphere are significantly related to citations. Conclusion: Various characteristics of articles' metadata are linked to the frequency with which the corresponding articles are cited. These results partially confirm and partially go counter to prior findings in software engineering and other disciplines.
Digital Twins in Solar Farms: An Approach through Time Series and Deep Learning
Kamel Arafet, Rafael Berlanga
The generation of electricity through renewable energy sources increases every day, with solar energy being one of the fastest-growing. The emergence of information technologies such as Digital Twins (DT) in the field of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 allows a substantial development in automatic diagnostic systems. The objective of this work is to obtain the DT of a Photovoltaic Solar Farm (PVSF) with a deep-learning (DL) approach. To build such a DT, sensor-based time series are properly analyzed and processed. The resulting data are used to train a DL model (e.g., autoencoders) in order to detect anomalies of the physical system in its DT. Results show a reconstruction error around 0.1, a recall score of 0.92 and an Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.97. Therefore, this paper demonstrates that the DT can reproduce the behavior as well as detect efficiently anomalies of the physical system.
Industrial engineering. Management engineering, Electronic computers. Computer science